Sini's India

Ila Ada / Ela Ada / Vazhayila Ada

Ila ada / Ela ada is a snack from Kerala. Ila means leaf which in this case means banana leaf. The filling of Ila ada is a mixture of grated coconut & jaggery or grated coconut & sugar. Cardamom also can be used if you like the taste and smell.

The dough made of rice flour is spread on a piece of banana leaf and very thin layer is made using hand. To make a thin layer, you really need some practice. Do not use oil which changes the taste of ada. Dip you hand in water so frequently which helps to make a thin layer of dough on the leaf.

This can be cooked in two ways; either steam or toast. I usually do steam cooked ada, as I feel it gets the better taste & smell than the toasted ada.

Ingredients:

Rice flour : 1 cup

Water : 1 cup (slightly above)

Salt : 1/5 teaspoon (slightly less)

Oil : 1 teaspoon

Sugar : 7-8 teaspoons (can replace with jaggery) -Amount of sugar/jaggery can be varied as per your taste)

Step 2:
Take a piece of banana leaf as shown in the picture. Keep a lemon sized ball of dough on it. Using your hand, slowly flatten it out. Start from the middle and extend it outwards. Dip your hand in normal water frequently, this helps in flattening easier.

Step 3:
Mix powdered sugar and grated coconut.

Step 4:
Take a small ball of above mix (lemon size) and spread it on ada (step 2) only on one side as shown below. Leave the edges.

Step 5:
Fold the leaf by keeping sugar-coconut mix in lower half. Press on the edges to stick well.

Step5:
Keep this on steam and cook for 10-15 min. If ada is coming out without sticking on the leaf, you can take it out from the steam.

I love cooking and trying out various recipes, and also to come up with ways to achieve good results in reasonable time and effort 🙂 All of the recipes I post here were tried out by me at least 2-3 times (if not a few dozen times) before I was happy with a simple method which gives me good results. Hope you enjoy making these dishes. Would be thrilled if you let me know in the comments how your experiment went.
If you have recipe requests for any Malabar dishes, please contact me and I’ll make every effort to get the recipe, try it out and post it here.